Demon Tears: Death is just the Beginning
by Soarana Dractnogon
Summary: A young Succubus is thrown out of her village after the recent murders of her charge, and his lover. She wanders, lost and alone, and is discovered by a group of mercinaries, who take her in.


Demon Tears: Death is just the beginning

Chapter 1:

The mystery of friendship

A loud crack of wood against wood echoed through the forest. A woman's voice was heard after that.

"Good. Now, watch your footwork." She smiled and stepped backward onto an old, but sturdy fallen tree. In her left hand was a quarterstaff, made from hollow bamboo. Her sparring partner smiled at the fact that his teacher acknowledged his improving fighting skills, and countered her movement by jumping lightly onto the other end of the same log, facing her with his own quarterstaff gripped tightly in his hands.

"Loosen your grip. Don't be so tense." Swiftly twirling her staff in her fingers, she walked through the training. "Now, echo my footsteps. Left, now right, left again…good. Now if I strike overhand, you counter…like that, yes." She set the pace for both of them, stepping solidly on the weathered timber, and equally striking at the young man, but he hadn't yet loosened up. With a deep sigh, she speeded up, balancing on the balls of her feet, and from time to time, lightly hopping over the not-so-sturdy pieces of bark.

With a light gust of energy, she swung at her sparring partner with an underhand blow, and just when he began to counter it, she momentarily stopped, changed her attack position, and softly prodded him in the stomach, making him topple off the log, and onto the soft moss in the shade next to it. "You didn't loosen up."

The man's long white hair was fanned out around his head, and his bright amber eyes were opened wide, staring in dizzy bewilderment at the spinning sky. At least, to him it was spinning. His Sensei (teacher) jumped off the log and stood above her student, leaning over so she could look him in the face. "Had I been using my sword over there," She waved in the general direction of her weapon. "You'd have a bloody hole in your torso right now, and we wouldn't want that, now would we?"

A baffled look crossed his face, "No, not really…" he sputtered, as his whole body ached from the day's training. His teacher stepped to one side of him, and offered her hand to help him to his feet. He was wobbly, but standing.

His composure at the moment was odd, well, more than usual, anyways. This man usually looked odd, at least to humans. Instead of regular ears, he had large, white dog ears perched atop his head, amongst his long, silken, white hair. Every time he smiled, one could see his pointed canine teeth; and besides weapons, he fought with his claw-like nails. He was clothed in bright red cloth, and his feet were left uncovered as not to hinder his movement. This young man appeared in his early twenties, when, in fact, he was a 100 year demon that went by the name, InuYasha. (Which happens to mean female dog demon, but we won't tell him that.)

InuYasha turned and lightly sat upon the fallen tree and his mentor followed suit, sitting next to him. Sighing, he leaned back to look at the twilight sky. "It's no use. I don't even see why father placed you as my teacher when there's no way in hell I'll ever be as good as you, Soarana-sensei."

InuYasha's father, InuTaisho (Who's full name is Inu no Taisho, which translates into Lord of the dog demons), was a dog Taiyoukai (full blooded demon) whom fell in love with a beautiful human woman. InuTaisho and Soarana had been close for many years, and when InuYasha was born, his father knew that his new Hanyou (half demon) son would not be safe, so he set the woman as his protector and teacher. Then, he went off and…to put it bluntly…got himself killed. Soarana was the last one to see him alive, other than his enemy, of course.

At this moment, you're probably wondering why InuTaisho chose a mere woman to care for his demonic son…but this woman knows a few tricks of her own. Her name is Soarana; and human is exactly what she isn't. This woman is a Succubus Taiyoukai, but to a human, she doesn't look quite as odd as InuYasha. Her long black hair was tied back in a thick braid that, at the moment, fell over her shoulder and rested on the log beside her, with plenty of slack left to it. She had a slightly brown complexion and the dusk light cast a rosy hue upon her finely crafted features. Along with the sun, her eyes glowed a ghostly red. The only marks on her flawless skin were two stripes on her face, one under each cheek; as if they were dried-on tear streaks. Like InuYasha, her nails were sharp like claws and her large, white teeth narrowed to sharp points; and if she smiled with her teeth bared, one had the feeling she was about to sink those pearly-whites into your neck.

To take away from that eerie look of hers, she was clothed in pure white. Her long kimono touched the ground when she stood, and it hung open to reveal that her chest was wrapped in thick white, cloth bandages, as were her wrists and ankles, but not because she was wounded, but because they made it easier for her to fight. Finally her lower half was clothed in loose, white pants secured with a long, silken sash.

The most stunning part of this woman was usually hidden by her kimono, but not at the moment, because the kimono was hanging in a nearby tree as not to get in the way of training. Stretched across her back, like tattoos, were a set of black, skeletal wing markings.

Anyways, back to the story at hand. Ever since InuYasha's mother, Izayoi, passed away when he was a child, Soarana raised him. But that was many years ago, and their relationship had grown to be more like inseparable friends than teacher and student.

Soarana turned to her friend and replied with a smile, "Maybe he knew that, with my care you'd become a sweet, caring Youkai (demon) like you are now." She chuckled happily, wrapping her arm around the man's shoulders and pulling him into a one-armed hug.

He smiled and returned the hug adding, "Feh. If I am sweet and caring, I don't think that _you're_ the reason I'm like that. After all, you eat humans."

"Hey! I quit that lifestyle before I even met your father, so don't start that!" she slipped her arm up around his neck and ruffled his hair with his hair with her opposite hand.

InuYasha squeaked awkwardly before letting out a muffled "HEY! LEMME GO! QUIT!"

As soon as the words escaped his lips, Soarana let go and lightly pushed off on his shoulder. Yet again, the young Hanyou lost his balance and fell face-first into the mud.

With a snort of laughter, Soarana stood, took hold of her charge by his shoulders, and pulled him to his feet, brushing the mud and tree moss off him in the process. He spit out a particularly large dirt clod before announcing, "I just realized that dirt doesn't taste too good…"

"Oh, really?" she replied, picking the two quarterstaffs off the ground.

"And you know what else I just realized?" he continued, as he swiped her kimono from an overhanging tree limb.

"What's that?"

"I think…"he draped the kimono over his mentor's shoulders, letting it flutter loosely in the wind. "…that I'm in love."

A blank look swept across Soarana's face, and she turned to look at him over her shoulder. "Following in your father's footsteps, eh?"

She saw him shrug slightly and nod, then he walked in front of her. "She's the one. Demon or not, Kikyo's the one for me."

"But she's a Miko (Priestess). She's supposed to exterminate demons."

"She's thinking of letting me use the Shikon no Tama to become…" he stopped in mid sentence. Two different thoughts raced through his mind at the same time and he couldn't decide on what to say.

Kikyo was the human Miko of the village that the two Youkais currently resided in; but, she was also the guardian of the Shikon no Tama (Jewel of the Four Souls) which gave ultimate power to the being that controlled it.

Soarana looked him in the eyes, "Demon? Or maybe you've changed your mind again and finally want to become human."

"But how did you…?"

"Kikyo came to me yesterday. I am the village elder, you know. She told me everything. The recent demon disturbances; your growing power; her feelings for you; and most of all…her decision for the Shikon Jewel."

"What did she decide! Tell me!"

"That is not my place…" Soarana turned and walked toward the tree where her kimono had been hanging, and picked her sword off the ground. This sword, however, was no normal sword; which was the reason InuYasha could not touch it. It could only be near Taiyoukais, and he was a Hanyou. The sword was made from the fangs of its former owner, which happened to be InuTaisho, and he named the sword Sou'nga. It had to power to send the world spiraling into oblivion, if handled in the wrong hands. But it's not as though this particular Youkai would use it for that purpose. All Soarana wanted was a sword that could withstand her attacks and attackers. After pushing her arms into the long, loose sleeves of her kimono, she picked the sheathed Sou'nga off the ground and slipped the strap over one shoulder. Then, she began to walk back to the village with a very confused Hanyou trailing behind her.

She could hear the soft pitter-patter of bare feet trotting along with her, and the sound was growing closer, as not to draw attention, but to stay with Soarana's fast walking pace.

"Hey, Soarana-sensei! Can I ask you one more thing?" InuYasha called as he finally caught up to her.

"What is it?" she continued walking, along the soft dirt path.

"Mother once told me something I could never forget. She said that when father was alive, she wasn't the only one in possession of his love. Now, for awhile, I pondered this though, and at first, I came to the conclusion that she was speaking of the mother of Sesshoumaru, you know…my half-brother. But now, I'm not so sure. I think…I think I'm looking at his lover." He stopped his train of thought, but continued walking, and when he glanced up at his friend, and mentor, he noticed she wasn't there, because she had stopped walking completely when he had stopped talking. He stared at her in silence, wondering what her plan of action would be, whether she would even make a reply to his inquiry.

The young Youkai felt the wind all about him, but he was entranced by the way it blew through the loose folds of his teacher's kimono, fanning out its tail around the woman, and ruffling the long sleeves, which hung just a foot shy of the ground. The loose locks of hair that fell in front of her ears, Soarana always let out of her braid; and her face was perfectly framed by her bangs and those longer strands of hair. Closing her eyes, the woman turned her face to the sky, to the now deep shade of red the dusk had turned it into. Immersed it thought, with the feel of the wind playing around her, she let the hand that was holding onto the sword strap fall to her side, and she heard the sheath hit the dirt with a soft thud, as the now limp hand still had a hold of it.

InuYasha stepped a few feet towards her, and broke the beautiful silence with a simple "Please. I just need to know."

The lady Taiyoukai opened her eyes, and gazed past the single, puffy cloud that had decided to drift over her. She was like that cloud…alone in this wide, beautiful world. The only one of her kind. The only one to travel here from a far off dimension filled with the Cubi monarchy, and of Angels; all living in peace. She was emotionless, as was usual for her, at least, when she wasn't around InuYasha or the young Kaede; a Priestess in training and the very young sister of Kikyo. Without a change in her facial features, she suddenly spoke, "If the times when I came to this world had been different…If Youkais had been more accepted at the time I met your father, and if we didn't always have to be aware…Then you would be my _son_…Not just my charge…"

She trailed off, and closed her eyes again, letting a single tear roll down her striped cheek, and become lost in the mass of her kimono. InuYasha opened and closed his mouth several times, trying to form words, but every thought in his mind was mixed together with no conceivable pattern. Just as he was about to give up on thinking, one clear thought came forward…One thought he had had for a long time. And now he knew what to do. The young Hanyou slowly walked the rest of the way toward Soarana, and then he wrapped his arms around his guardian, pulling her into a comforting embrace. He stood there for a few moments, feeling her muscles relax, and she let her head softly thud onto his shoulder. She sighed deeply, which gave the boy an odd feel; her breath on his neck was cool and dry, just the opposite of what breath usually was.

His voice was soft and comforting when he finally spoke, "I thought you already knew, but you have always been like a mother to me. And I thank you for that…for everything." He pulled away, and gave his mentor one of his bright, reassuring smiles, then he squeezed her hand lightly and the moment he let go, he was off, dashing back to the village. He had a bone to pick with Kikyo.

Soarana gazed, wide-eyed and awestruck at the back of her departing charge and a slight coolness rolled down her cheeks yet again, as she broke into a smile. She shook her head, "That boy will be the demise of me someday. My heart can't stand melting every day because of his childish charm"

By this time in the afternoon, when the sky was blood red, and only half of the sun was visible, it meant that it was time to head home, for it would be dark soon. But she had the feeling that InuYasha was not heading home, but going to visit his girl, whom was probably patroling for any rogue demons that happened to wander into the village.

With a slight chuckle she swung her sword strap over her head, until the Sou'nga rested firmly in a diagonal across her back, then she started off again, at a running pace that would far surpass any humans. The trees were but only green and brown blurs as she sped along, and she had a funny feeling that the small brown hawk soaring above her intended to challenge her to a race. The large, red wooden arch at the city's entrance loomed ahead, and with only a slight change in motion, she slowed to a standstill; leaving a large dust cloud starting from where she had put on the breaks. The Taiyoukai gazed around the village, and with the entrance situated atop the hill, like it was, she could see everything from the huts in front of her, to the forest that stretched for miles at the other border of the town; she could see everything that is, except InuYasha and Kikyo.

The activity of this village was slowing; the children were being sent out to fetch the night's water and parents were lighting fires in the small huts to keep warm through the cool evening. But, had Soarana been paying attention to her immediate surroundings, she would've been more aware of the sneak attack being waged on her at that very moment. Her only warning was a light giggle before she was sent tumbling down the stairs only to find herself sprawled on the ground. She glanced up to see the face of a young girl staring happily at her from her seat, which happened to be straddled across the lower chest cavity of the friendly Taiyoukai.

Wheezing slightly, but smiling, Soarana spoke happily, "Young Kaede. Shouldn't you and your sister be preparing for nightfall?"

The girl shook her head sadly. "I can't find her. InuYasha went to look for her a while ago, but they haven't-"

A sudden, shrill scream echoed through the village, followed but an eerie silence. Soarana sat up, and gently pushed the girl off her. As she rose to her feet, she slipped her kimono off her shoulders and handed it, with the quarterstaffs, to the scared young Miko, whom was shakily trying to stand.

"Go. Warn the village of danger. Get everyone who can't fight in their homes."

Without even staying to see if the girl really understood her, she was off, through the village and toward the woods, where the scream had come from. Heads turned to watch her race down the center path. Without breaking stride, she slipped the strap over her head so it, yet again, rested along her back, but this time, as she ran, she fiddled with the straps covering her wrists and forearms, which secured hidden daggers. By this time, she was running at breakneck speed, and it was only a matter of seconds before she reached the tree line and was taking a running jump into the boughs of the trees. Making her way from branch to branch gave her a better view through the foliage, and she was going about the same speed, without fear of falling, because she had had years of training; after all, she did come from a long line of Youkais whom had mastered the art of Ninjutsu. When she reached a large maple tree bordering a wide clearing she stopped halfway down the tree, and balanced on a rather wide bough, crouched on the balls of her feet. Soarana was sure that if there had been any enemies around to hear her that they wouldn't of, because she had graduated at the top of her class. But, it's not like they could've heard her, had she been noisy, because of the screams erupting from the area ahead of her.

"You dare betray me, InuYasha?"

"No, I didn't...I mean…"

"You and your excuses! Do you see what you have done to me? Do you see the blood that I have shed because of you?"

"But I didn't-"

"Silence!" A woman's voice echoed through the woods, and from her point of view, Soarana couldn't see anyone else, so she decided to make her way down the tree to see the whole scene. Using her claws for leverage, she grabbed a hold of the branch she was crouched on, and swung her feet down, landing in the tall grass silently. After pushing her way through the underbrush ahead of her, she saw the terrible truth. InuYasha was backed up against a huge oak tree, because Kikyo had an arrow pulled back in her bow, and it was aimed with intent to kill InuYasha; However, Kikyo herself wasn't in the best of situations, either. She wasn't standing tall and proud as usual, but she was hunched over, and her white kimono shirt was stained in blood.

The moment Soarana stepped into the clearing; the Miko let the arrow fly, and it penetrated the left shoulder of the Hanyou with such force, that the momentum carried him backward, and into the tree, where he hung, as if in a sleepy trance. As soon as the boy lost consciousness, Kikyo collapsed to the ground, only supported by her hands and knees.

The lady Taiyoukai slowly walked forward, past the struggling Miko and to her charge. Reaching up, she stroked his cheek lightly with the back of her hand and was surprised to feel him still breathing.

A wheezing voice spoke up behind her, "I had to do it. He tried to steal the Shikon Jewel, and then he did this to me. I am sorry for your loss, but not for his. I only ask one thing of you. Please, burn the Jewel with my body."

Soarana turned to look at Kikyo, whom was now lying on her stomach with her eyes shut. Our Taiyoukai could feel the soul leave the girl's body and journey to the unknown. Unfortunately, that journey was known all to well to this guardian, for she had seen many pass over; either at her hand or the cause of someone else.

With one last gaze at the trapped InuYasha, the woman on her way. With a solemn look, she stepped up to the dead Miko and scooped her up into her arms. The "dead weight" of Kikyo wasn't anything Soarana couldn't handle, but she still decided to take it slow. The sky was a deep purple now, which meant that her vision would be clearing up soon. In the day, a Succubus has perfect vision, but at night, all their senses increase tenfold. This makes sense, considering they are "Creatures of the Night".

Through the trees ahead of her, Soarana could hear random shouts between the villagers and seeing their flickering torches played with her sense of vision almost to the point where she ran into a tree instead of emerging into the village…but there was no such collision. When she did enter the village, however, everyone stopped and stared. A certain unfamiliar buff young man stepped towards the Taiyoukai.

"Hand her over and no one will be harmed."

Soarana wasn't sure how to act. These villagers that she had led peacefully for decades suddenly confronted her; and as a matter-of-fact, they were armed and looking particularly mutinous.


End file.
